Spotlight Artist

Isabelle McCormick

MFA Annual
Artist profile photo

Picture in a picture in a picture in a picture (night)

Cartoon of a person taking a selfie of their body, colorful space-themed background.

oil, acrylic, gold leaf, and Swarovski crystals on canvas stretched panel

Falling Angel

Hand with rainbow nails holding a phone showing a surreal scene with a floating figure and blue shapes.

oil, acrylic, glitter, Swarovski crystals, and plaster relief on canvas stretched panel

Corona Cake III (winter is coming)

People warming by a fire, "winter is coming" text, icy decorations, birds on a branch.

oil, acrylic, glitter, and Swarovski crystals on canvas

Featured in New American Paintings1 / 3

Artist Statement

 Isabelle McCormick employs traditional oil painting techniques and sculptural relief to render virtual space. At the intersection of technology and art history, she examines the relationship between self-surveillance and feminine archetypes that persist across the social media screenscape. Combining gold leaf, glitter, and Swarovski crystals with plaster casts and cake decorating techniques, she cultivates a tactile materiality that imitates self-branding. In a hyperbolic world of retouching apps and reality TV, McCormick explores the scopophilic pleasure in curating an online image, and the consequent chasm between the bodily self and social media façade.

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